Tigers blast past Blue Jays, 11-1

OK, how about a 10-run lead?Instead of closer-by-committee, why not closer-by-offense?

Rather than risk another lead blown by the bullpen, by allowing it to remain a close game like they had one day earlier, the Tigers just kept piling it on in Thursday’s series finale with the Blue Jays, ending the season’s first home stand with an 11-1 win.

“We played a good game today, and I’m proud of them. We lost a heartbreaker yesterday. We let one get away,” said manager Jim Leyland of watching his Tigers (5-4) get to the same 6-1 lead they’d let slip away on Wednesday, then insisting that they keep pressing, and put away the Blue Jays (3-6). “I’m really proud of the way the guys came out after a tough loss yesterday, and not knowing if we’re going to play today, and then having to play in those conditions — you know, nobody packed it up to get on the plane for the West Coast.

“They were locked in pretty good.”

And, at least early on, they did it with ... well, speed and defense. Taking the extra base, or stealing one. Andy Dirks threw out a baserunner at the plate.

Exactly how the Tigers were constructed, right?

A day after Prince Fielder beat out both a double play and an infield single, Miguel Cabrera one-upped him with an uncontested steal of third base and a stand-up triple — the first time in his career he’d ever done both in one game. Jhonny Peralta added an infield single of his own. Alex Avila took an extra base on a sacrifice fly.

“We were running around a lot today. Had to, because it was cold outside,” said Avila of the game-time temperature of 35 degrees — tying an April 2003 game for the coldest ever in the 14 years of Comerica Park — and persistent drizzling rain.

“Miserable.”For a series where no one knew if any of the three games got in, it really didn’t end up being much of a problem. All three were played, with only Wednesday’s delay of 2:29 inconveniencing fans.

The miserable conditions were certainly an inconvenience to playing well, though.

“We played the game well today, for the conditions we had. We ran the bases well, timely hitting, played good defense,” Torii Hunter said. “The pitching was great today. For this kind of conditions — wet, cold, rainy — I was pretty impressed.”

Other than the few statistical oddities, it was exactly the formula you’d expect the Tigers to employ: Solid starting pitching (eight strong innings from Doug Fister) and tons of hits — 16 in eight innings, giving the Tigers 42 in the series, and 67 in their last five games.

After lasting just five innings in his first start, Fister was cruising for the most part Thursday. Even though it’s been miserable conditions for pitchers to be able to command their breaking balls, he seemed to have little problem doing so.

He needed just seven pitches — and three minutes — to get through the first inning, despite a wind-blown double by Jose Bautista. He’d pitch through the eighth — the longest start by a Tigers pitcher so far this season — finishing with one run on eight hits, striking out five and walking one.

“It’s been cold before. It’s one of things where, it’s mindset. A lot of the guys took the mindset out there that, yeah, it’s physically cold, but mentally not going to let it affect you,” Fister said of the frigid conditions. “They were pretty bad. Hats off to the guys here. They stuck it out pretty well, went nine innings, and played very well in it. Didn’t let it affect them. Everybody had that mindset that it’s not going to affect us, we’re just going to go out there and play our game, and I think that’s the big thing. For me, I cheated, and got some heat between innings. But as long as I’m moving, typically the cold doesn’t bother me.”

That’s usually what the defenders behind Fister say, considering how fast he works, keeping them on their toes.

“Unbelievable. It was freezing out there, and he keep everybody working,” Cabrera said.

While Fister was cheating in the clubhouse, the other Tigers were keeping themselves warm by running around the bases.

Six different players scored runs in the game, four scoring twice or more.

The Tigers got on board in the first inning (for the seventh time in nine games), when Cabrera and Fielder drew back-to-back two-out walks. Cabrera stole third with the defense shifted around against Victor Martinez, who then shot an RBI single through the hole at short for a 1-0 lead.

After the Jays tied it in the second, Detroit batted around in the bottom of the inning, as six of the seven batters Josh Johnson faced got hits — including Cabrera’s stand-up triple — chasing him after 1 1/3 innings, and with a 6-1 lead. The only out the Toronto starter got in the second inning was Omar Infante’s sacrifice fly, which drove Melky Cabrera back to the left-field wall.

It was the shortest start of Johnson’s career.

But the Tigers didn’t want to be content with that.

After Dirks’ strike from left field helped quash a potential Jays rally in the third, the Tigers knew they couldn’t just sit on another five-run lead, so they decided to twist the knife.

After missing out on a bases-loaded chance in the fourth, they wouldn’t do the same in the fifth, once Leyland had Infante follow up on a leadoff walk and Avila single by bunting for a base hit to load them up again.

“I was trying to add on runs. I thought it was really important with that offense. It was 6-1 yesterday at one time in the sixth inning. I was trying to add on runs,” the manager said. “That team — it was 6-1 later in the game yesterday, and we lost the game. That team’s going to keep swinging. That’s one thing that people don’t realize: How fast stuff happens at the major league level. Couple walks and a home run, and all of a sudden, it’s 6-4.

“We saw how fast it happened yesterday — although the seventh inning didn’t happen fast. That was a total nightmare because we were walking them. That was a slow death. But normally, things can happen pretty fast.”

The Tigers came into the game 1-for-12 in at-bats with the bases loaded, and made outs on their first two chances Thursday before Torii Hunter came up with a two-run single in the fifth. Prince Fielder would follow with a two-run double, making it 10-1.

The four-hit, four-run rally in the fifth gave the Tigers four double-digit hit games in their last five, but the first time they’ve broken double digits in runs.

Fielder would add a fourth RBI with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly, scoring Jackson for the third time in the game, and making it 11-1.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Email him at matt.mowery@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @matthewbmowery.